An impressive knockout win by Filipino Manny Pacquiao over American rival Timothy Bradley could lead to another fight for the Filipino champion, possibly against Floyd Mayweather, according to a boxing analyst.

Pacquiao and Bradley will face each other for the third time in their careers with both winning one match each in previous meetings.

Leo Reyes of Digital Journal opines that the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 bout could open the door for Pacquiao to reconsider his retirement especially if the Filipino champion delivers an impressive KO win.

“As [Bob] Arum continues to shell out $20 million for a typical Pacquiao fight despite his six-year KO holiday, a knockout win for Pacquiao against Bradley on April 9 would likely trigger a new series of lucrative fights for the Filipino fighter,” Reyes, a respected boxing writer, stated in his article

“A KO win by Pacquiao in his third encounter with Bradley and another knockout win by the end of the year would only mean that Pacquiao’s shoulder injury was in fact the culprit in his KO holidays during the past six years.”

As noted by Reyes, Pacquiao has not won via knockout since his TKO win over Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in 2010. Pacquiao is 7-3 since that fight with all wins coming via unanimous decisions. His three losses came against Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2008 and Floyd Mayweather in 2015.

Reyes added that an impressive performance against Bradley and succeeding fights could lure Mayweather back to the ring.

“It won’t be surprising if Mayweather will come out of retirement once Pacquiao starts knocking out his next opponents as a result of his successful shoulder surgery. If that happens, a second fight against the unbeaten champion could even dwarf the historic revenue that was generated during their last fight,” Reyes stated.

Pacquiao, who has insisted this will be the final fight in his career, will face Bradley on April 9, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States.